Chemical Attraction
by donctorwho
Summary: Human AU with the Doctor as a scientist working at a university's lab and Rose as one of the many people who pass through the lab on campus tours. When Rose is separated from her group unexpectedly, she naturally turns to the cute lab-coat guy for assistance. Short fluff fic, TenxRose.


"Mum, what's the point in touring the biology hall? I don't even know how to use anything in a laboratory, so why would I need to see it?" Nineteen year old Rose Tyler sighed exasperatedly as her mother shushed her and hurried to catch up with the rest of their small tour group. Dragging her feet a little, Rose dawdled behind, eager to leave the university's campus and go home to her tiny flat. All things aside, she had never considered college an option until her mum had found a few of Rose's deceased father's old ideas and managed to sell them at quite a turn of profit. It had been a whole year that she was out of school, working full time as a shop girl to earn a living and buy her own flat, away from the prying eyes of her mum. It had been quite a difficulty for Jackie to let her only daughter move a few streets over, yet in the end they had agreed on weekly visits and lunch on the weekends. Without her mum's soap operas playing needlessly in the background, Rose was having a hard time adjusting to the relative silence of her new flat and found herself switching the telly on to the daytime channels and just letting it run for an hour or two._ Speaking of silence,_ Rose thought, _something feels off..._ She looked up from where she was watching her feet scuff along on the tiled floor and realized that in her lingering pace she had been left behind by the entirety of her tour group. Rose sighed, blowing her fringe off her face as she exhaled and continued, quicker this time, in a vain attempt to catch up with the tour.

A short time later Rose found herself in what she could only assume to be the main biology laboratory. The low ceilings and odor of sterilizer in the air made the large space seem cramped, and the clutter and whir of machinery certainly didn't help. On quiet feet, Rose roamed the room, poking at bits of unused equipment and humming softly to herself. A few minutes in, Rose gave up on her exploration of the room, turned around and hurried to find the exit, hoping it would lead her to her wayward tour group. Her sharp switch of direction sent her careening vaguely forwards, straight in the path of a rather tall and formidable coat hanger. Luckily, at the last second a hand swooped out of nowhere, grabbing onto Rose's arm to right her, leaving the hapless coat hanger a swift fall to the tiled floor.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry I didn't see that, actually I'm not supposed to be here but I promise I can explain, you see I've just been separated from my tour and -" she paused a moment to look up into the face of the stranger who had saved her from the fall. A skinny scientist in a white lab coat stared back, his hair a mess and glasses on the bridge of his slightly hooked nose threatening to fall off completely. He smiled at her, a smile she was sure could light up the entirety of London and then some, letting go of her arm. Rose immediately wished he had left his hand where it rested, a thought she quickly shut down. For a few moments, there was only silence as the two stared into each other's eyes when suddenly, the door was flung open and in came none other than Jackie Tyler. "Rose! There you are, sweetheart I was worried sick when you wandered off! Oh, who's your friend?" Rose gulped and broke eye contact with the handsome stranger, turning to her mum to offer some semblance of an explanation when the man in the lab coat stepped forward and offered a hand in greeting to Jackie. "Smith, John Smith. Doctor John Smith, I suppose, but please, just call me Doctor. Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Miss...?" He quirked an eyebrow as his sentence trailed off, waiting for Jackie to answer. "Jackie," Rose's mum replied, shaking his hand, "and this one here is my daughter Rose." The stranger - John Smith, Rose reminded herself - turned to her, smiling that megawatt smile yet again and shook her hand warmly. "Pleasure to meet you, Rose." Swiveling back to face Jackie he offered up a brief recap of what had just taken place. "So you see," he ended the tale, "your daughter here must have gotten left behind and accidentally wandered in here. It is quite the mess and I do apologize for your earlier fall. You're lucky though, that coat hanger is a tough one and won't need a bit of replacement!" Rose laughed at that, biting her tongue as she did in an attempt to muffle her laugh. Jackie seized the opportunity to sneak a peek at the doctor, humming in approval as she did.

"Well," she coughed, making them break their long-held eye contact and direct their attention to her, "I think I'll just pop off to the loo if that's fine with everyone! Be back in one tick Rose." Jackie leaned in to whisper in Rose's ear, "I'll be waiting outside the building when you're done, sweetheart, just take your time with this, alright?" She patted Rose on the cheek and hurried back the way she came, her hefty purse lifted high on her shoulder and swaying as she walked.

Rose grinned nervously with her mum's departure, left alone again with Doctor John Smith - er, Doctor, she supposed she could call him if his earlier introduction was anything to go by. "So, Doctor, wotcha working on in this..." she glanced around at the mess, "...er, laboratory?" The doctor grinned and looked around, running his hand up the back of his head (a habit which Rose took note of and cleverly decided was the reason for his perfectly messy hair). He turned to the lab bench nearest him, test tubes and beakers full of unidentifiable chemicals lined up in a row. "You really want to know?" he asked, glancing from Rose to the beakers, then back to Rose to hold eye contact. She smiled a coy smile, leaning over the table to point at one of the half full test tubes. "Well, let's start easy. What's that chemical in there? The blue one."

The doctor plucked the tube out of its holster and held it up to the light. "Ah, this is methylene blue. Quite fascinating, really - at room temperature it is a simple dark green powder, yet when mixed with water, it yields this little blue liquid here. I'm using it simply for dyeing specimens, so it's nothing too dangerous really. The experiment you see laid out before you is quite simple, really," he picked up a small dish of what he quickly explained was yeast before continuing his babble. "See, using it here I'm seeing if the eukaryotic cells in this here sample of yeast -" he inhaled deeply, his nose close to the yeast, "are alive or not!"

Rose nodded, lost, but loving the way the doctor's eyes lit up when he talked of science and experiments. "So..." she trailed off, tracing circles on the table with her finger, "you do biology, yeah? All sorts of... science tricks I'm sure you know about." He nodded eagerly, proud to display his knowledge. Rose inched closer to the doctor, staring him in the eyes. "Tell me this then," she said, her voice barely above a whisper, "do the pupils actually dilate when people are, um, attracted to each other?" She innocently glanced down at the table where her finger still traced circles on the worn tabletop. "Well," he said, his voice rough, "quite often, and it has been proven scientifically, the -" Rose swiftly grabbed the lapels of the lab coat, pressing her lips to his. He got the message - less science, more kissing. His hands waved wildly in the air, still holding on to the small dish of yeast and test tube of methylene blue. As Rose broke away, aware of the glass dishes in his hands, he glanced around wildly as if searching for the tabletop. Rose laughed, softly lifting the two containers from his panicked hands and placing them safely on the lab bench. He grinned sheepishly at her, almost apologetically, and pressed a quick kiss to her forehead. Smiling - tongue between her teeth - Rose grabbed his hand, leading him out the front door of the lab towards her car.


End file.
